CDFI (Community Development Financial Institutions) Fund Qualified Opportunity Zones
| Details | Qualified Opportunity Zone eligibility and designations |
|---|---|
| Topics | Qualified Opportunity Zone |
| Source | Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, US Department of the Treasury |
| Years Available | 2018 |
| Geographies | census tract |
| Public Edition or Subscriber-only | Subscriber-only |
| Download Available | yes |
| For more information | https://www.cdfifund.gov/opportunity-zones |
| Last updated on PolicyMap | October 2025 |
Description:
Once designated, Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZ) can receive substantial tax breaks for long term investments to low-income neighborhoods. State governors can nominate up to twenty five percent or twenty five total, whichever is larger, low-income community (LIC) census tracts for QOZ designation. The current QOZ designations in PolicyMap show those tracts nominated and designated as QOZs in June 2018. Additionally, the QOZ designations in PolicyMap reflect rural area status as defined in IRS Notice 2025-50, as of October 2025. In this notice, a “Rural Area” is defined as any area other than (i) a city or town that has a population of greater than 50,000 inhabitants, and (ii) any urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to a city or town with more than 50,000 inhabitants.
Census tracts are considered LICs if the tract has either (1) a median family income at or below 80% of Area Median Income (AMI) or (2) a poverty rate of 20% or greater as determined with the 2011-2015 Census American Community Survey data. LIC eligibility also includes select qualified high migration tracts, low-population tracts within Empowerment Zones, and territorial census tracts that meet the LIC qualifications.
Up to five percent of tracts that are nominated for the QOZ can be qualified non-LIC as long as they are contiguous to a LIC and have a median family income that is not greater than 125 percent of the adjacent LIC. Eligible contiguous non-LIC tracts that are contiguous to a LIC in a different state are also eligible for nomination if the adjacent state nominates the LIC QOZ.